


Of Miscommunications and Men

by noctgarr



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 15:53:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15122798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noctgarr/pseuds/noctgarr
Summary: Prompto laments over not getting enough of a certain someone's attention. Luckily, that certain someone is prepared to reassure him of his place in the group, albeit clumsily.---The calm before the Altissia storm, or rather, I can't process the events of Altissia so I instead choose to completely ignore them in favor pursuing more indulgent concepts.





	Of Miscommunications and Men

"Yeess!" Prompto cheered, leaning over the balcony and squatting like a pent up spring and bounding up again. "We're rolling it now, baby!"

"No shit, Noct! I really thought you were full of it this time." Gladio clapped a hand to the prince's back and jostled him vigorously. "That's amazing though, that other beast was real nasty..."

"It shouldn't be hard for you to imagine that there's strength in numbers, Gladiolus." Ignis lectured. "It's how we operate after all. It was a very apt choice, my king."

"Yeah, y'know Ignis, that's actually why I picked them. I took one look at them and thought: 'Don't you think that pack of snarling dogs is just like us?'" Noctis teased, crossing his arms with a smug smile.

"Well, you lot are anyways." Ignis chuckled, clapping his hands over Noctis's shoulders and kissing him atop his head. "Just be good boys for me, okay?"

"We'll do our best, won't we?" Gladio egged the others on.

"Yeah, I guess." Noctis craned his neck back and smiled, while Prompto remained thoroughly invested in finding out which creatures would roll in from behind the spiked gates next.

"Though, if I may interrupt His Majesty's leisure time... Might I suggest we wrap it up soon? Regrettably, I am almost ready to retire for the evening and one can only take so much senseless violence before he starts to question it..."

"Aww..." Noctis whined, causing Ignis to seize and begin to mentally retract everything he had just saidー but where Noctis might of thrown a tantrum just a few years ago, he now changed his tune instead. "...Of course, Iggy. This is just as much a vacation for all of you as it is for me. Let's go, Prom."

"Aw man, I wanted to place a bet too..." He huffed, though he followed along like a baby chocobo anyway.

 

The gondola ride back to the hotel was nothing short of picturesque, affording them all the sights a foreign city had to offer, but it is painful for Prompto. It wasn't for a lack of proper seating to accommodate them, nor was it the setting sun that made his skin burn. No, in fact Prompto managed to squeeze himself in before the others so he could snatch up the oh-so-coveted love seat at the back of the boat for himself; and despite the sun being still fairly high in the sky, the air was actually quite mild and cool. The problem therein was that Noctis had just casually joined him. Their shoulders were only inches apart, and their hands were not far behindー it drove the young boy mad.

Normally, Prompto would cherish the intimacy of their newfound closeness, sharing quick glances and shallow breaths that made his skin come alive, but instead it's wasted on the fact that the prince's eyes weren't glued to himー but at fish slipping out of view under the gondola. Worst still, Ignis' sharp gaze seemed to see right through him and into his shamefully untouched soul. 

Prompto straightened up and pointedly snaps a picture of the other men at the opposite end of the boat. When he brought up the preview he noticed Gladio had snuck in a pair of bunny ears atop his boyfriend's head with his lightning quick reflexes. Prompto snickered, sticking his tongue out at Ignis who merely scoffed and turned away againー leaving him to wade through his teenage sorrows in peace. Though the energy between them seemed to shake Noctis out of his fish induced stupor, looking quizzically at his retainers from across the boat.

"You're all so quiet." Noctis remarked, just as surprised as anyone that he was the first to speak among them since they stepped on the boat. 

"I'm simply appreciating the sights." Ignis mused, and judging by the way Gladio was watching the cook, he too was enjoying what he saw.

"And you? Get any good pictures?" Noctis prodded, elbowing the boy who was in a much sourer mood than before.

"Not really, just their ugly mugs. Oh! Actually, uh, here." Prompto perked up a little as he dug his phone from his pocket, holding it up above them. "Come in closer, man, you're getting cut off."

Noctis obliged, pressing their cheeks together to fit himself in the phone's little screen. Their sides finally touch too, though it's out of frame, but it made Prompto's chest squeeze regardless. He dropped his hands back down between his legs, letting himself soak in the moment he just captured, ghosting his thumb up and down the screen fondly. Amidst his daydreaming, his eyes trail up innocently, and he caught the final moments of a tender kiss between Ignis and his mountain of a man. Ignis' hands furl into little balls on his thighs as they pull away, casting his gaze below the rims of his glasses and laughing once softly.

"You're too much." He whispered, shaking his head gently as he met Gladiolus' eyes again and smiled. "At least take me to dinner first."

Jealously bubbled like a pit of oil in Prompto's stomach, and when he looked at Noctis again he's leaned over the edge of the boat with his head in his palm like before. He could strangle him but he lets his head loll over the back of the love seat instead, staring off into space as blankly as the clueless prince did.

They step off onto solid ground once again as soon as the boat is anchored at their stop. Ignis stucj to Gladiolus' side, unintentionally splitting the group into two pairs.

"We were going to get ice cream, will you two be joining us?" 

Prompto almost pipes up with an enthusiastic 'hell Yes', but Noctis swiftly answers for both of them.

"No, actually, I had something I wanted to show him. Is it okay if we meet at the hotel later?"

"It's no skin off our backs, right Iggy?"

"...Indeed. Just make sure you're both back before dark. Daemon's have been cropping up in the alleyways and I won't be wasting my evening worrying about you, understood?"

"Got it." Noctis nodded, before walking on ahead. "Prompto! If you're coming then hurry it up." He called out with his hip cocked and his arms crossed. Prompto does as he's told, breaking into a light jog to catch up, but not without first questioning his friend's authority.

"What was that, man? What could be better than a cold, creamy gelato on a night like tonight?"

"...I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Not even what you're gonna show me?" Prompto shoved his hands in his pockets and expelled an exasperated sigh, "Man, I got fuckin' cheated. This is stupid."

"What the hell is your problem?"

"You are! You know I'm like this close to leaving you here and picking myself up some chicks at the bar cuz you suck so bad at this, man. Like, we're in Altissia! Seriously! This place does most of the work for you. I could be like three bra clasps deep in a make out sesh right about now this place is so goddamn romantic-"

Noctis frowned and pushed him suddenly, backing him up against a wall with a piercing stare. "Just... be quiet already."

With a hand anchored to the wall above Prompto's head, the prince crashed his lips against Prompto's chapped ones. His movements were firm, but still unsure, hesitating slightly when he tilted his head and held the kiss, as if he was stalling while he calculated his next move. Prompto doesn't hesitate however, planting his feet and fisting Noctis's shirt so he couldn't back out. They break only for a small gasp of the cool, marine air before they melt back into each other, Noctis' hands dropping to his sides to squeeze bony hips. 

Everything is free game now for their once restrained hands, manipulating each other like puppets to chase the molten heat bubbling up inside them.

"Prompto." Noctis hissed, hands now clasped around the back of the other boy's head and kissing him until his chest aches and pleads for air. He leaned in again, and Prompto sucked in a breath- but he merely bumped their foreheads together. Neither knew how long ago the sky blackened above them, and a sudden calm fell over them long enough for them to ponder it. "I..."

Prompto shrunk down the wall in exhaustion, panting softly for air.

"I got you this, by the way." Noctis finally managed, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a bracelet studded with little diamonds that he twirled awkwardly in the space between their bodies. "At Totomostro today. It would have felt weird to get something for myself when we're in Altissia."

"Aah..." Prompto admired the bangle with wide adoring eyes, until the prince's face come into focus again. "...Why give it to me?"

"It was the most expensive thing there that wasn't car parts."

"No." Prompto snorted, appreciating his bluntness. "Why me, and not someone else?"

"Oh. Well." Noctis scratched his neck nervously. "...I like you. Is why."

"You like them too." 

"Yeah, but they know I do." Noctis's eyes cast to the cobblestone, "I think you forget sometimes."

"Augghh... I don't forget, really, I just... don't believe you."

"Well, believe me." Noctis said plainly, a small smile working its way onto his face. "...And, let’s go back, before Ignis has to come find us." He offered his hand and Prompto takes it after a little deliberation, feeling glad he did when he feels how nervously the other boy's palms were sweating. He could relate, and to have let him stew on unrequited feelings was a pain he didn't want for the Lucian prince.

Their hands remain locked the entire way back, appreciating all the smells that waft on the ocean breeze from noisy vendors' and their food carts. Though they had a deadline, they still slowed their pace to take in all the foreign sensations. Something childish inside both of them inspired them to act a little less their age, making crude jokes down the hall of the hotel while Prompto spun their lanyard around with his free hand.

He doesn't even feel jealous when a fretful Ignis ambushed them in their room, catching Noctis's soft cheeks in his hands and kissing his lips like a longing lover, because for a rare moment Prompto feels like he is a part of this family, and indeed, he too gets a kiss to his forehead.

"I can't believe you boys made me worry anyway." Ignis pulled away with a pout, fixing strands of hair on both of their heads. "How am I to trust you when you do things like this?"

"Go easy on them Ignis. I told you, it gets darker faster in Altissia. They can take care of themselves." Gladio reassured his boyfriend from where he was planted on the corner of the bed with his legs splayed apart. "Come here though, you two, I feel like I haven't seen you all day." Beckoning them with curled fingers and a pat on the bed.

Enduring one final bear hug is all that stood between them and a peaceful night sleep, and they pay the toll gladly before collapsing into bed together and burrowing under the covers. Prompto poked his head out from the blankets and pulled his phone up to his face to check the time, flicking back his lock screen only to be met his own smiling face pressed to Noctis' on the gondola.

"You look cute here."

"Hmm." Noctis hummed, worming his fingers out from under the sheets to pinch his fingers across the screen and get a closer look at Prompto's sunny face. "Yeah, you should send me this one. It can be my profile picture on King's Knight."

"Heh, good idea." Prompto smiled, taking one last look at the photo before wordlessly setting it as his wallpaper.


End file.
